Luke's Blog

Portugal, Southern Spain, South West England, Belfast

2007-05-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

im still rocking up the travel miles, now that i have a motorbike i can see Europe a different way. this was taken on a ride to southampton about 75miles from london.

During the easter break i travelled to Portugal with Kirsten. We visited the monuments, checked out the capital, Lisbon

drank some fantastic wine and port and saw a 'fado' performance which is sort of like an opera performed in a restaurant

at the end of April, Lucy and I travelled to Southern Spain for a week. We had a hire car the the duration and rocked up 850k's. The roads in the city centres of spain are insanely narrow and complicated and without Dan's GPS navigation we would still be there. We visited the big cities of Granada, Cordoba and Seville, as well as some smaller rural and coastal towns.

this is the little town near cordoba where we spent a night.

we visited Seville when they had a massive festival where everyone dresses up (women wear their flamenco dresses) and parade the streets in horse drawn carriages.

for about 400 years, muslims ruled in southern spain (until about 1400). some of the palaces we saw were beautiful. this is a timber carved ceiling in the palace in spain, the craftsmanship is impressive

we spent two nights at a little seaside town near Cadiz and spent one day lying on the beach. i have never been so burnt in my life.

the view from the top of the rock in Gilbraltor was amazing, you can see Africa from here.

the famous monkeys in Gilbraltor, they try and snatch any plastic bags they see from tourists (looking for sweets)

For the may day long weekend, michael and i headed off on a 850k 2-day bike ride to the south west of England. sticking mostly to regional roads along the coastline, we passed through the counties dorset, devon, cornwall and exmoor. we stayed overnight in a town near plymouth.

on the way we visited a famous little 13th century village in devon called clovelly and had a traditional ale sitting on an old stone jetty.

last weekend i flew to Belfast for the weekend to visit my relatives for the first time. belfast is a lot more modern than i thought with new buildings going up everywhere. it was quite an experience coming out of the airport and meeting all these strangers. i remember thinking, ok which ones are related to me (though my grandfather brother and sister were quite obvious). i stayed with my cousin Neil who was my tour guide for the weekend.

on the sat we went on a open top bus tour through the city. this is one of the famous murals in the heart of where all the troubles occurred.

hopefully i'll be heading back there in August for a week and Neil and I will travel all around the island

so thats what i've been up to the last few weeks. i'm starting to feel a bit exhausted from all this travel and will be slowing down a bit in june/july. i'll be spending the next long-weekend in Paris with Lucy (she soesn't know that) and Pamploma in July for running with the bulls. but there's no rest for the wicked as in august i hope to go to Ireland and then at the end of the month the big bike trip through Europe begins.

Chamonix & Dusseldorf/Colonge

2007-03-26T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hi all,
The past few weeks have been a pretty cool time. At the start of march I went on another ski trip with work people (20 of us) for 5 days. It was back at Chamonix again so I got to revisit the area with a lot more snow this time. The weather was actually a bit too warm and it rained a lot crating a lot of avalanches in the area. I went out skiing every day but the third day was definitely the best. That day the weather cleared and the sun was out, most runs were open and covered with fresh snow. It was definitely the best day of skiing in my life.

The final ruin I did that day had a vertical height differfence of about 1500m! The greatest in Australia is just over 600m.
A few of us have always been talking about travelling around Europe by motorbike which was why I got my bike licence just before leaving Aus. 2 weeks ago I bought one! it’s a big sports-tourer which means it’s a bit sporty but is comfortable to ride for long periods.

The model is a 2001 Suzuki bandit 1200S which is known as a very reliable bike with plenty of grunt. I have taken it out a few times with one long ride on a Sunday and it was awesome. Michael bought his the same time as mine (yelloe one behind) and now Dan has just got his. The bike itself was pretty cheap (£2200) but the gear (£700) and insurance (£765) were not. Ultimately, in September we plan to tour for a month through western Europe, staying at campsites mostly and will make sure we’re in Munich for the Oktoberfest before heading home. Can’t wait!
Two weekends ags was spent in Dusseldorf Germany, another cheap Ryan air flight. There was supposed to be four of us but dan forgot to take his passport to work on Friday and didn’t realize until it was too late. So Kirsten, Michael and myself arrived late on Friday. We had a hire car for the duration and on sat we drove to cologne (only 30 mins) to check out the tallest cathedral in the world.

It took 600 years to build and magnificent to look at up close, particularly inside.

We climbed one of the towers for €2 and proceeded up the 580 odd steps. The view was pretty good though the visibility was not.

That night back in dusseldorf after a meal of pig knuckles we began a pub crawl at about 430 and finished up after midnight. We muct have drank at about 8 drinking halls/pubs/clubs sampling each places’ own brew of beer or local spirit (the beer halls sold only one type of beer and water). Opposite to munich, the drinking glasses are only 250ml (compared to a litre) and most of the beers were great and relatively cheap. As the wather was pretty crap on Sunday, we didn’t do much (we were gonna go on a cruise on the Rhein river) and arrived in London very late and very tired.
Trips Coming up include:
Portugal over Easter with Kirsten
A weekend in Belfast to visit my Irish relatives (just me)
Nine days in southern Spain, morocco and Gibraltar with Lucy
A long weekend bike trip to the Isle of Man
And about 10 of us have just booked Pamplona in July for the running with the bulls!

Oslo

2007-02-12T11:25:00.000-08:00

two weekends ago, michael, kirsten, dan and myself went to oslo for the weekend. this was our first 'ryanair' experience. ive heard many terrible stories about this infamous airline. they're notorious for overbooking and can cancel a flight at any-time. worst of all you dont get a refund, its tough luck. anyway, our flight went fine, the seats are uncomfortable but its only a 2hr flight. no complaints for a £37 flight (each way) so we left friday after work and arrived at 11pm in oslo. actually the airport is 2hrs from the city (like most 'ryanair' destinations). we had a hire car and drove into town. our accommodation was great for the price, a best-western hotel (£33 each for both nights with a full breakfast).

the weather for the whole trip was perfect, a crisp 4deg and no wind, nice and fresh with clear skies. the sunsets were amazing.

on sat, we decided to drive around the country, so we popped into a few towns, wandered around, popped into sweden for lunch and just generally checked out the countryside.

that night, kisten and i were hell bent on eating local cuisine and we ended up at this very smish restaurant where we ate cod's tongues for entree (they must have been bloody big fish) and rudolph... sorry i mean reindeer for main. both dishes were pretty good, the novelty factor was helping.

sunday we checked out oslo itself. its a beautiful harbour city which was actually partially frozen over.

they have a massive ski jump thing (they hosted the winter olympics in 1952).

we went to a viking museum where they had boats that were built in 900AD.

and checked out their royal palace.

this photo is outside the palace looking down to the city centre

all up it was a pretty cool weekend, nothing really blew me away but it was just cool to wander around another country. next up is a work ski trip to chamonix for 4 days at the start of March. since i left aus almost 1 year ago i have been to 17 countries, france, germany, austria, switzerland and scotland more than once. the time has flown by but living in brisbane seems so long ago.

bye for now!

The last few months

2007-01-25T12:52:00.000-08:00

Well finally i have got off my butt and made this post. A big hello to all the guys at KN, hope all is well. So after an unusually warm couple of months, winter has finally arrived here. it snowed 2 days ago and more is set to come. this the famous 'ghetto stonehenge' out the front of my place

a few months ago i went to see hampton court palace. henry the 8th was the first monarch to live there and was used for many generations after. the place was the best palace/chuch/monument tour i have done. highlights was learning how they cooked and ate during the tudor times as well as the amazing gardens.

i spent christmas with 16 other aussies in a french chalet in chamonix where we went skiing for a week and then spent new years in edinburgh for the hogmany festival. the trip turned into a mini disaster. our flight to geneva (chamonix is an hour from there by car) was cancelled due to the massive fog that engulfed the country for a week. i was with dan and kirsten and the others were already there. as the fog was set to continue we decided to drive there that night with only 2 hours sleep. so we hired a cab for the 150km trip to dover (which cost AUS$550!) caught the ferry to france, hired a car (min hire time was 7 days) and drove 850km to geneva. that was a massive effort and cost a fortune. but we made it. unfortunately the ski conditions were pretty ordinary but we still had fun.

we almost missed the plane trip to edinburgh (made it with 5 mins). in edinburgh the weather turned shit and 80km/h hour winds arrived and so the WHOLE new years eve festival was cancelled and we spent the night cooped up in our apartment drinking away. we did look around the town though and climed a nearby hill called 'Arthurs Seat' which had amazing views of the city. then to top the trip off our flight home was cancelled!

about 2 weeks ago a few of us spent the weekend in amsterdam. we followed the saying 'when in rome do as romans do' and had a blast. best window shopping ever. on the saturday we hired bikes and rode close to 30km around the countryside surrounding amsterdam. heading home in 40km/h head winds was a mission. i aslo did a walking tour through the town and learnet the history of the infamous little city. it is a very pretty place, especially around the canals

as mentioned in the previous little post, i went to my cousins wedding last weekend. it was my first wedding as an adult and i had a great time. Charmaine looked amazing and the night went well. this pic is with my cousin ashley, my great-uncle (the father of the bride) and me.

so thats the highlights of my past few months in Europe. next weekend im off to Oslo. in march im going back to chamonix for 4 days with a work ski trip and also to dusseldorf in germany for a weekend. i plan to go somewhere during the easter week in april and then travel somewhere for a week by train (maybe italy or spain) in the last week of that month. so i have a lot to look forward to.

im still loving it over here and coping with the winter better than i thought. the days are starting to slowly get longer and im looking forward to the summertime. work is great and im working on some really cool jobs including a £50 million 5 star hotel in southampton. this is it here

bye for now

Quick Wedding pic

2007-01-22T05:13:00.000-08:00

hi all,

yes i know i have been terrible with the updates but i promise to post a massive one that covers the last few months. they have been seeing and doing heaps and another couple of trips coming up in the next few weeks. in summary, i have been to hampton court palace, kent, christmas in chamonix, new years in edingburgh, amsterdam a few weeks ago and last weekend my cousins wedding in kent.

in the meantime before the big post, to keep the family happy for the moment, here is a photo of the bride and father and another of the bride and groom

bye for now

draft... Switzerland with the Folkes

2006-10-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

So my parents arrived from Australia for a 3 week holiday. They will be visiting London (obviously), Switzerland, Rome, Florence (day trip) and Paris. I joined them for the Switzerland leg of their travels (6 nights).

We flew into Geneva and caught the train to Interlaken where we would stay for the first 4 nights. As you would expect, the scenery in switzerland is amazing, particularly away from the big cities and in the middle, mountainous part of the country. The town of Interlaken is located between two lakes (hence the name) and is full of tourist shops (mostly watches and expensive restaurants).

The day after arriving we caught the train to Lucern to vist Mt Pilates. We boarded a ferry and cruised along the lake and was dropped off at a train station. This train took us all the way up to the top of the mountain (2300m) and is apparently the steepest rail in the world (48% gradient). The train is driven through a big cog wheel in the middle of it which slots into a grooved middle rail. this allows it to travel up steep inclines (normal trains would slide down the mountain). The view at the top was pretty good, though there was a bit of fog around Lucerne whah made things a bit hazy. There was no snow at the top and it was a lot warmer than expected, i wore a long sleeve shirt and didn't need my jacket.

The next mountain on our list was Jungfrau, the top of Europe. This also had a cog railway to get to the top, though the last few k's were through the mountain via a tunnel dug completed in 1912 taking 16 years. The whole complex is built inside the mountain and it was bloody cold inside. At a height of over 3900m we were well above the snow line, with amazing views of glaciers and snow covered mountains. I went for a little trek through the snow to check out another chalet/hotel/restaurant building off in the distance. After 45 mins of walking up what was practically all uphill, I reached it totally exhausted. By the end I only had a t-shirt on in minus 7 temp (the sun was quite hot though). The walk was worth it, I took some awesome snaps of the scenery which could only be seen from here.

Third mountain was the 'James Bond Mountain'. the 1967 film 'on her majesty's secret service' was filmed there. The lookout is at an altitude of about 3200m and it has the world's first rotating restaurant. It took 3 cable car lifts to reach it. Again the views were amazing, and it was a lovely clear day. Over the edge of the mountain about 100m below us we could see an eagle circling around riding the updraft and slowly rising up toward us and then above us. That was pretty cool to watch. The restaurant was actually pretty good and not too exe. Mum and Garry shared this huge Ice cream desert that was loaded with fruit and about 8 scoops of different flavoured (and tasty) ice cream. After lunch, I decided to walk from the top lookout down to the next cable car station below. The sign said it would take about 45 mins - no prob. The parts of the path that we could see all seemed pretty easy, all exposed rock. So off I went on my merry way until I stopped about 1km into it and about 200m lower in altitude than from where I started. In front of me the path was quite steep, curving around a mountain side and it was totally iced over (as it was in the shade). I watched some rather distressed locals coming the other way hanging on for dear life as they pulled themselves around and up the slippery path. I wouldn’t say you’d die if you went over the edge, but it would’ve been a very painful slide down a rock covered hill. So I pondered for about 20mins trying different routes to get past and not making much progress. Turning back meant a bloody exhausting climb. Eventually, to my luck, some experienced locals came along and showed me how to attack it. Fortunately I was wearing propper trekking shoes on with suitable soles or I would’ve had to turn back. The rest of the path was comparatively easy and I chatted with my new friends

For our last 2 days we stayed in the town of Zermatt. it’s a pretty nice looking town but nothing exceptional apart from no cars are allowed on the roads, only electric buggy things. The town is about 1600m above sea level, so it was a bit chilly at night. From here here caught a big cable Gondola up to our final mountain, the Matterhorn. On the way to the gondola (which was at the edge of the town), I saw some tourists posing for a photo holding a Toblerone bar which I thought was rather odd until I looked and saw the mountain in the background - the Matterhorn is the mountain shown on the chocolate bar!

It quite a lovely and clear day, and Gondola was full of people heading up the mountain. Some were decked out in some serious rock climbing gear, others with skis or snowboard. I discovered later that this region has all year skiing. If I had of known I would have done my best to hit the slopes if only for one day - made me look VERY forward to Christmas. So we had a wander around up the top, again spectacular views. The Matterhorn mountain itself is quite spectacular. Unlike most mountains which are surrounded by each other, it appears to be isolated giving it much more prominence.

Croatia

2006-10-08T14:51:00.000-07:00

daniel arrived from australia beginning the next aussie wave of immigrants coming to london (kirsten and michael to follow) and soon after we went to croatia with callan for 10 days. im gonna quickly post up some pics and then finish off with more detail later (im heading to switzerland with my folks in 2 days and i dont have much free time)

anyway, basically it was meant to be an easy going relaxed trip and it was for a lot of it was (driving half the country at 1am and constant snoring from the other two excluded)

our first night was in split (a big town on the mainland in the middle of the country) then we began our time on the dalmation coast staying on the islands of hvar (2 nights) and kocula (2 nights) and finishing up with 3 nights in magnificent dubrovnik

my favourite place was hvar, a beautiful island where the town is full of venetian architecture. check out callan's blog for a better description of our trip.

i think this was in korcula?

dan and i hired scooters for the day in hvar and this was the typical scenery, not bad hey

i took this in a bus on our way to dubrovnik. i like it

this was taken from on top of the walls that border the old town area of dubrovnik

a sunset also in dubrovnik
and another shot in dubrovnik, the old town in amazing and you can swim in the crystal clear water

so there you go, a relaxing trip overall, spent way too much money but thats life. it was nice to get some sun before the dreaded london winter.

ciao!

The Scottish Highlands

2006-09-02T06:10:00.000-07:00

The Scottish Highlands was everything i imagined it to be, rugged barren and cool.

I left work at lunch and caught an afternoon flight to edinburgh. i booked my hostel for the wrong night and they were booked out that night, so callan got a lunchtime phone call to find me something and luckily he did.

the next morning the tour began, there was about 30 of us, many australian but plenty of other foreigners as well. we made our way up to the highlands stopping at various places on the way.

this is an old barracks which featured heavily in the jacobian 'civil' war in the 1750's

this is at a church beside a river

at the end of the day we arrived at a snall town beside loch ness. the loch is actually quite long (over 100ks) and narrow (usually 1km) and deep (200m). we went on a cruise of the loch at night, these pics are of loch ness, im going to print these out

afterwards we drank at the local bar listening to a local singer (quite good) playing traditional songs as well as the usual pub ones, turned into a pretty huge night in the end.

the next day we went to the isle of skye. its an island that is linked by bridge. this is where the landscape was very barren with the kind of landscape you see on photos.

while touring the island, we pulled over, got out of the bus and our guide pointed to this column of rock on top of the mountain, told us an old folk story about the rock and said 'right, now we're gonna climb up to it'. for me, this was the highlight of the trip.

only a few of us made it all the way to the top and i was one of the first. just in time too as a cloud front rolled in and the magnificent views disappeared. we walked back down the track in a light drizzly rain but it wasn't cold and only added to the rugged atmosphere. a very cool little trek.

this is halfway up thetrek, nice view hey

we stayed the night on the island, went to a few pubs in the tittle town and walked up toa hill overlooking the town at 1am.

the next day we made our way back to edinburgh, we visited this famous castle that you see a lot in photos and was in a few movies (james bond, highlander).

after arriving back in edinburgh a few of us on the tour met up for a few drinks and as there was a big comedy/theatre festival on, we went to see an aussie comedian. he was pretty funny but very political

the next day i met up with a friend from contiki who lives there and we wandered around the city. i didnt go to the castle as i'll be there for new years so i'll see it then. Edinburgh is a pretty little city, quite hilly and lots of old buildings and cobbled streets.

it'll be interesting to see it in jan when it is snowing.

so thats about it, not too much detail but it takes me too long to write a full essay.

i have a lot of travel coming up in the next few weeks. next weekend i'll hopefully be in wales, the one after that, i'll be in liverpool to watch an FA cup game (Everton), weekend after that is croatia for 10 days. then paris overnight, then mum arrives and we go to switzerland for a week. tough life hey!

cya

Bath Trip and future travels

2006-08-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys been quite a while... Over the last few weeks, i have been spending my weekends in London. I have had a lot of fun, but there hasn't been anything worth taking photos of. However one weekend, Callan and I went on a day trip to Bath. Its about 1.5hrs away by train and it is located over a natural spring when the water gushes out from a crack in the earths surface at a temp of about 45 degrees. I didnt take my camera as callan brought his fangdangled SLR and so i didnt see the point, so the following photos were taken by him.

The romans created this bath complex over the springs (hence the name of the town).

The town also has a famous and very beautiful church which we went inside to watch the choir perform to hear the acoustics of the building (quite impressive). Callan the girl got a bit spooked out with the whole church thing and did a runner as soon as they started (girl)

After checking out the baths, we wander to a famous street called Royal Crescent. A famous english architect designed the crescent and surrounding homes in the mid 1700s. its world renowned for its architecture (its a classic georgian style) but i was unimpressed. they looked like a typical unit in chelsea. Apparently famous people like Elton John and such own a place on the crescent.

So after checking out the crescent and begin walking back towards the town for some food, i hear someone call out 'oh my god what the hell are you doing here' i look up and assume its someone callan knew as he was in front of me, but no it was my cousin Ash and girfriend Natalie! what are the odds of that!

So we all hung out for the rest of the day, going for a walk up a hill to get a good view of the town.

we walked along the river passing a famous bridge

and had dinner together before saying goodbye (they were staying overnight). Quite an enjoyable day out.

In a few days im off to scotland by myself for 4 nights (over the long-weekend), im going on a 3 day tour up to the scottish highlands and stay near loch ness. Cant wait for that. There are a few of us who will be going to Croatia for 10 days at the end of September. Also I've booked 2 apartments for new years at Edinburgh which holds a massive festival during new years. Word has got out about the trip and it seems to have given a few in Brisbane the motivation to get their butt over here either for a trip or on a premanent basis. I suspect there will be 10-12 of us in all! that will be a massive reunion. Finally, Kirsten and callan are researching a christmas trip. This is the trip that im most looking forward to. The plan is to get a group of us and stay in a French Chalet at a ski resort for a week over christmas. Not a bad way to spend my first white christmas!

I'm loving work and living in London in general. Summer is over, its struggling to break 20 but the nights are still warm. im not looking forward to winter but thats life. Take care all!

yes im still alive

2006-07-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

hi guys,

well im still alive but haven't done anything noteworthy the last few weeks so i havent bothered to post anything.

i caught up with stu, a mate from brisbane on the weekend, as did peta and callan. he stayed over at my place and we proceeded to have a boozy weekend, i think i'll take this weekend easy.

work is still great, went to one of the associate's house warming party a few weeks ago. he had just bought a bbq and as he was a pom, didn't have much of an idea of how to use it. so i offered to help and took over the bbq responsibility. as there was around 50 people and the bbq was a 2 burner, i had my work cut out. reminded me of my uni days as the CESA bbq man where we'd cook 300 burgers and 200 snags in 3 hours. i loved every smoke filled minute of it!

i was planning to go to cambridge this weekend but we discovered you need to book a few weeks ahead or all the cheap accomm will be taken. we'll do it some other time

and thats all i have to blog about, i want to do some real travelling in the next few weeks so i might have something interesting the write about.

cya

World Cup Pics - part 3 of 3

2006-06-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

here's some world cup pics, but scroll to the last one below first. there was too many pics for one post

i almost wanted to get arrested!

celebarting the big win !

me and Kennie!

lake zurich

chilling out beside the lake

after 2 weeks of non stop partying we were kinda exhausted

so thats it, hope you enjoy, we sure as hell did

World Cup Pics - part 2 of 3

2006-06-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

this is surfing munich style, its a drainage channel that runs through the big park in the city, awesome to watch

this is at the 'live site' at munich, its the equivalent of federation square, only bigger

this is the socceroos warming up before the craotia game

at stutgart before the game, we were severley outnumbered by the croatians, but they were pretty cool

as every aussie was still in their seats cheering after the big win, the socceroos came out after about 20mins after the game to do another lap of honour. we went nuts

World Cup Pics

2006-06-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics from our World Cup Trip. you can click on them now and they open up in a new window a lot larger

this is in kaiserslautern where all the aussies partied before the japan game

man they love the hoff so much they named a chain of shops after him. well thats what i reckon

the aussie contingent at the japan game, awesome atmosphere
the socceroos just after winning!

the town near where we stayed at for the first few days. its called 'bad durkheim' or as callan called it 'bad durke durke durke' - as in team america

callan snorting some 'snuff' at the german beer hall in munich, trust me it clears the sinuses!

at the brazil game, awesome seats

the socerros training, it was kinda boring but the 4 hour train ride there was a riot!

wonderful zürich

2006-06-25T02:22:00.000-07:00

so weve been in zürich for a few days and willbe heading home in a few hours.

its pretty cool here,not a scenic as lucerne as its not surrounded by snow capped mountains but cool never the less. we went out to a smicko club last night, 30swiss francs entry fee! and 4 drinks cost me 70! fücking exe. (a franc is about the same as an aussie dollar). lucky this trip is on the pound so it was comforting that way

did a cruise along the lake yesterday and walked through the town, pretty cool. will post pics when i get home

anyway that will do internet is exe here just like everything else

cya

we mäde it!

2006-06-23T02:38:00.000-07:00

that was the most exhilarating game of my life, definately the best ever.

it was such a close nailbiting game, i lost my voice for a bit. will never forget that, ever.

yesterday we caught the train to stüttgärt in the morning, wandered around, then rallied at a beergarden. after a few 1 litre steins, we went to the stadium and wvitnessed a once in a lifetime experience. after the win all the aussies stayed in their seats for ages and they played acdc´s TNT and land down under song. fucking awesome!

caught the train home and partied our way on it for a few hours, arrived in munich at 3,30am

now were about to catch a train to zürich.

will post pics when i get home

p.s i got a photo with ken sutcliffe after the game!

cya

Im át the world cup!

2006-06-16T23:55:00.000-07:00

hi everyone, well were about halfway through the world cup and were having a blast! some of you have seen us on tv already (we were on the today show) and i was filmed on the afl footy show with a few of us mobbing billy brownless during a biergarden crawl 2 days ago. tonight is the samba party with the brazzilans and tom is match day. cant wait for both! the day after that we go to see the socerros at a training session and all the tv crews will be there, so keep a look out for us. for some reason, my mobile wont work over here, i guess i needed to enable int'l roaming so thats why i haven't replied (debbie). i am heading into town today to see if i can fix it. if you need to contact me use callan's mobile but he has no credit at the moment so he cant reply (hes gonna try and top it up today)

went to an ice cave yesterday as well as salzburg in austria, pretty cool but a mission to get there. day before was a biergarden crawl including the world's largest one, they're f€cking massive. day before that was our arrival to munich so we hit the town, good night out, met a few locals (no luck though) and got home at 3, callan got home at 615

so thats about it. tchuss

Some pics of London

2006-06-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

hello, been a while since my last post. last week i did write a massive one that finished contiki. it took forever to write and i had heaps of pics uploaded. then windows explorer crashed and i lost it all. i aint gonna do it again, ill post some pics up later buy at the moment it wont, but it will let me upload these.

some of you have asked me to upload pics of my place, i call it the 'hood.'

the place is an ex-council block. after ww2 there was a critical housing shortage due to the bombings, so the govt built all the units on bomb sites. at the time, speed was more important than aesthetics. this is the view from outside my flont door, we call the brick thing in the courtyard the 'ghetto stonehenge'. its actully a nice place inside, plenty of room. this is the loungeroom (my flatmate is ironing).

and this is part of my room, its so small i couldnt fit it in as i was against the wall, but i have a queen size bed :-) clean hey

this is my desk at work, i have a window which is cool, not a great view but i can open the window when i want.

this is my floor at work

and this is a pic of Natalie and my cousin Ashley who i stayed with when i first moved over. they live in Richmond and this pic was taken there along the river thames during a beautiful sunset a few weeks ago

i took this while waiting for callan at picadilly circus. as a meeting place, its the equivalent of hungry jack in queen st mall, everyone goes there.

this is callan at an infamous place called 'the church'. basically its a place antipodeans (aussies, kiwis and saffas) and backpackers go to get really hammered. it runs on sundays from 12pm to 4pm during the day. you have to queue early to get in, i was lined up with 4 beers in my hand at 1030am. callan got pretty hammered, peta's in the background.

and thats it for the moment. looking forward to the world cup in a few days!

cya

Guess where i'm going in June

2006-05-22T04:57:00.000-07:00

hi all,

big news to announce. news has already leaked to a few so we might as well tell everyone.

Callan and I are going to the WORLD CUP in Germany!

we got second round offers for the camping tour and found out only 2 weeks ago.

its a 2 week organized tour that includes all 3 australia pool matches, 2 of the games are class 1 tickets (including brazil!). apart from the games, we sightsee germany and some of austria. click on the link if you want to see our itinery http://www.ffatravel.com.au/package.php?id=8

we got flights direct to frankfurt for £47 with lufthansa (which is a bargain) on the way there. the tour finishes on friday morn so we have booked a train to Zurich, accomm for 2 nights and our flight home sun night with britich airways. so we'll check out switzerland, maybe do a bikeride or something. who knows

so that's it, i can't wait to go.

in london, nothing much to say. went to a bbq and a party on the weekend. i am looking into going to wales next weekend (we have monday off) but am not sure yet.

see ya

Weekend in London

2006-05-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

boinos dias,

a quick update of what i did on the weekend. friday night i went out for a few drinks with callan, natasha, james (another from contiki) and a few of their friends. nothing much to note other than we almost witnessed an all out brawl that flowed onto the streets. bummer. i did catch the wrong bus though so i did what my drunken self thought was the logical step, call for directions. so i called kirsten in australia at 130 am for directions. pretty funny actually, but also an expensive call.

sat, i met callan and a few guys from his work and watched the FA cup final. it was a ripper of a game, none of this boring 0-0 draw that i associate soccer with. 3-3 drawl that ended with a penalty shootout with harry kewel's team, liverpool, winning. there were some rather emotional people at the pub. that night went we met up with callan's bro in some nice looking suburb for dinner and a few drinks. got talking to these spanish girls who unfortunately were rather young (17, 19 & 21) but extremely gorgeous.

sunday i took myself to the imperial war museum.

its really cool. out the front are these 2 massive 15 inch guns built in ww1 and used in d-day in ww2 as well. they can shoot an 800kg shell 29km!

inside was tanks and stuff and loads of cool exhibits that kept me entertained for hours. this is a russian T-35 tank that was the best tank in ww2. egypt used this actual tank aginst the israelies (until they captured it) in 1972 and was by no means considered obsolete even then.

and thats my weekend

these contiki posts take forever to write. i might have to shorten them a bit, but i'll still post lots of pics, thats easy

cya

Contiki - Day 5 - Nice and Day 6 - Pisa/Florence

2006-05-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

Day 5

Today was a free day in Nice, meaning we could do whatever you wanted. Somehow my roommate and I got up at 930am, most didn’t get up till noon. I spent most of the day walking around lost due to my lazyness at reading the map that was in my backpack. The only worthwhile thing to do in Nice is go to the beach, the citry itself was pretty ordinary looking and generally dodgy. I did hire roller blades and attempted to skate along the esplanade, that was pretty cool except I kept stacking it. That’s about all that’s worth writing about Nice that day but the night was better. We had an included dinner in the hotel that was shithouse and began a trand for all the included dinners for the rest of the tour. Anyway about 10 of us still had the stamina to head out, so we went to this place called Wayne’s Bar. The bar was full of big timber picnic tables all lined up in 3 rows and we were packed in like sardines. It was really hard to move around, and even harder to talk with anyone who wasn’t beside you. Then the band started. After about the third song everyone all of a sudden everyone went nuts and jumped on the tables, everyone. We then spent the next 5 hours singing and dancing like maniacs standing on tables. Very cool. Crashed at 330am.

Day 6
Headed to Florence via Pisa. The scenery was amazing, beautiful mansions sprinkled amongst fog covered mountains and gorgeous coastlines.

Pisa was pretty shit, I’m glad we only stopped there for a few hours. From what I saw, it’s a big ugly suburban looking town full of graffiti. But the tower itself was pretty good. The pics say it all.

Checked into our hotel and headed for dinner. As our tour guide said described it dinner was like being at a big fat Greek wedding Italian style. Lots of food, dancing and plenty of wine.

We all danced to the traditional Italian songs (conga lines, human arches etc) and had a good laugh. After dinner was the space electronica disco. 2 levels, upstairs was the dance floor which was full of 16yo Italians, so I spent most of the night downstairs chatting with people from another Contiki tour. After a few long island iced teas we headed home and crashed at about 230am.

Contiki - Day 4 Nice

2006-05-08T13:17:00.000-07:00

Day 4

Headed to Nice. Nice is famous for its beaches. Compared to Aus standards they wouldn’t even be called a beach. The beach is made from big dark pebbles and there’s no waves.

But the reason you go to Nice is not what the beach looks like, but who’s on the beach and more to the point, what they are wearing (a piece of string usually - guys included). Unfortunately, it was April and the temp was barely 20, so no one was on the beach at all. We arrived in the arvo, and headed for dinner in the tiny country of Monaco to begin what was the best night of the tour. Dinner included all the wine you can drink, so we got our money’s worth.

After downing 8 glassess of red and white, I was ready for a big night. After dinner we checked out the famous casino’s. There are 2 right next to each other, one is the famous but expensive one, the other was cheaper. I went to the cheaper one as I wanted to actually bet and 25€ as a minimum bet more than I wanted to spend. Anyway I lost 42€ on craps but I had fun. On the way out we checked out the carpark for the expensive casino. A jag was the cheapest car there, it was loaded with Ferrari’s, Rolls and Bentley’s.

And then we headed back to Nice. By this time everyone was pretty well smashed and mucking around, I found this pink belt and decided to wear it all night (I still have it) but the best was when a guy and girl from the tour decided they liked each other’s clothes so much they swapped and this was inside the bar we were in! So we were in this smokey Irish bar with a band playing upstairs. They were selling Corona’s for 3€ so I stuck to them (2 at a time though). Curtis, a guy on the tour (who coincidentally went to the same high school as me) was talking with this group of 5 American girls. All of us single guys soon took notice and began inching our way over, then practically all at once we pounced! The tour guide though it was hilarious. In the end they had to go to another place, just as Jeremey was at the bar paying for 5 beers for them. He drowned his sorrows by drinking them all in quick succession. Eventually I went upstairs to check out the band. They were pretty good, playing all these covers. There was a few of us moshing up the front, having a riot of a time.

The singer was getting us all to sing into the mike, but when it came my turn, nothing came out. I had lost my voice at the start of the trip and by then it was completely gone, a little embarrassing but funny too. Anyway, it was a great atmosphere at the pub, 45 out of the 48 on our tour were out, everyone was having a blast, even these 2 Chinese girls who sculled their pints as the pub closed at 3am. About 25 of us were still charging so we headed to a nightclub around the corner. We were all dancing around, I got grabbed by a few girls on account of the belt, then 2 of us started talking with 3 local French girls. We got them a drink then discovered the were 16! Turns out the legal drinking age in Europe is 16, I pretty well freaked and walked out of that situation. Eventually we clamoured home via a taxi, chatted for a bit at the hotel and finally crashed at 6.30am. That was a cool night.

London on the weekend

2006-05-07T15:01:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Now that ive settled in, it was time to begin sightseeing London. So on sat, callan, Natasha (a girl from my contiki tour who has just moved to London as well) and myself went to see the Tower of London. It was pretty good, cost £15 but that included a guided tour from one of the famous ‘beefeaters.’ The tower is basically a fortress with a few buildings inside including the white tower. it was first built in the early 1100's with many additions built over the years

this was taken on my new mobile phone. it takes pretty good photos, but still no way near as good as my digital camera. the grass used to be a moat filled with water but they filled it during the time of queen victoria
after the tour we had lunch in an Italian restaurant in the city and then met peta at a house party. It was pretty cool, talked to a few people, drank quite a lot and caught the night bus home at about 2ish. Today (Sunday) I went for a walk through Battersea park, which is only 3 blocks away. Its pretty cool, there’s walking and cycling paths, lakes, sporting ovals and gardens full of chirping birds. Tonight I went to the movies with my 2 housemates, had a few pints of guiness at the local and am about to go to bed. Not sure what I’ll do next weekend, some more sightseeing im sure.
Bye for now

Contiki - Day 3 - Lyon

2006-05-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

continuing the diary...

Day 3

We departed Paris and headed to Lyon. On the way, we stopped at a town called Avingyon. In the 1400’s there was a bit of turmoil in Rome so the Catholic Church relocated to this town. 5 popes lived here until eventually returning back to Rome.

The town was pretty cool, and there is a famous bridge there. While walking around, we stumbled upon a student protest, the French love protests, but we had no idea what they were protesting about. Then we visited a French chalet located in a vineyard that is run by Contiki. It located in a hilly area and so the views were spectacular.

We did a bit of a wine tour, tasted a few reds (I bought a red and a white) had a look around and departed. We arrived to Lyon in the arvo, got changed and were dropped off in the old city to find our own dinner. France is renowned for it’s food, and the best city to eat French food is Lyon. So I was on a mission, I wanted to try frogs legs and snails, as did many of us. Eventually we found a restaurant that had a set 4 course meal with snails as entrée and frogs legs as the main, crème Brule for dessert, done. This dinner was the best of the trip, the quality was great, the food was fantastic as was the 2 bottles of wine. The frogs legs was just like eating tiny chicken wings but the novelty made up for it. Dinner took 2 ½ hours to complete, but it was a well spent 50 Euros. After dinner we went to an Irish/American pub for a few beers but took it pretty easy. Crashed at 130 am.

Contiki Diary

2006-04-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

Finally i've begun typing up the diary. Hopefully i'll still remember everything by the time i finish writing it. I haven't focused on the language much, otherwise it'll feel like work. so here goes...

Day 1

After only 3 hours sleep the tour began at 730am. We got on the bus and headed to Dover. Caught the ferry across the channel, met a few people on the tour, saw the famous white cliffs and after a few hours arrived in Calais. After a few more hours of driving, we arrived in Paris in the afternoon. Before checking in we were taken on a driving tour of the sights at night. The Eiffel tower was spectacular at night with all the glistening lights that happen on the hour.

Louis the tour guide put on some famous French song and introduced us the Arc de Triumph roundabout by ploughing right into the middle of it causing all the traffic to stop, it was crazy! We checked into the hotel at about 1030pm, met Aaron, my roommate for the next 21days and went straight to bed.

Day 2

Had my first of many continental breakfasts, namely croissants and juice. We were dropped off in the city at the Eiffel Tower and began a massive day of sightseeing. The queue was over an hour long so we decided to take the steps. 780 steps later we reached the second level and then caught a lift to the very top. The view was amazing, you could see so much.

After the tower, we walked to some golden palace (can’t remember the name) then to the Arc de Triumph and from there down the Champs de Eliesse which a famous Boulevard with all the big name shops (you could even but a Ferrari). Halfway down the road some of us had lunch, including my first of many Espresso coffees. No sugar, no milk, straight up. After lunch we headed to the Louve Museum, home of the Mona Lisa.

As we were running on a tight schedule, I only spent 45 mins inside. So after seeing the Mona Lisa (and yes the eyes do follow you), I checked out the upside down glass pyramid where, according to the da Vinci code, points to the location of the Holy Grail (sorry for those who haven’t read the book). I met up with a few guys outside the museum and we headed for the Musee de Orsee which has some famous modern art (still a few hundred years old though) and is actually a converted train station. After that, we headed to the Notre Dame church. On the way, we stopped into a café/bar right on the river, bought a bottle of red, sat at a table outside and watched the traffic pass by. That was one of the highlights of the tour. So we checked out the church, its better than I expected, took something like 200 years to build. It has this famous stain glass window called the Rose and its like 6 metres in diameter or something.

And that was the end of my sightseeing, I must have walked 15 kilometres or soand my feet we killing. That night we went to the Moulin Rouge, it cost 130 Euros, but as if i wasn't gonna go!

The show was pretty cool, the girls loved the extravagant costumes and choreographed dancing but us guys we loved the boobs, dozens of beautiful topless girls. After the show we to an irish bar next door. Got to talk to a few people from the tour as well as some locals. I learnt the hard way that its very difficult to strike up a conversation with someone who doesn’t speak English. 3 of us walked some German girls home in the cold rain (stupid idea) and eventually crashed at 3am.

more days to come, but here are some pics (i posted these a few days ago) cya

this is in monaco, at the palace

At a lookout overlooking Florence

the trevi fountain in rome

st pauls cathedral in the vatican

inside the pantheon in rome (nice shot)

that will do for now, will post some more soon

Work

2006-04-21T09:23:00.000-07:00

hi all,

well i made it back from contiki and have started work. i will put up a massive pic post of contiki next week and then eventually a description of what went on.

anyway i've started work. its a pretty cool place, everyone seems pretty friendly, i think im about to go to the pub (its friday arvo).

i am in the middle of looking for a place to live, it's not that easy, especially without a car. i have seen some places but they seem a bit exe (£105 + £25 bills per week -thats AUS$330!) we'll see.

got to go for now.

Güten Tag

2006-04-10T02:37:00.000-07:00

hi

am in munich atm. still having a great time though this middle leg hasn´t been as good. the people on the tour are pretty good but we´re not the ´family´ i was expecting. we have run into another contiki tour a few times and their group sounds a lot better. shit happens

in summary

paris: awesome, need to go back to see all the stuff i saw in fast forward

lyon: not a lot to do there but had an awesome dinner. had snails, frogs legs and crem brule.

nice: didn´t like it. probably cos it was cold and so no-one was on the beach. but the town itself was pretty dingy as well

florence: not a lot there but we saw some cool old buildings and some of michelangelo´s artwork.

rome: awesome, will have to go back. did the vatican, coleseum etc. but there is so much to do.
had a fantastic dinner in a famous piazza. seafood risotto and a top drop of red wine

venice: it rained the whole time, gondola got cancelled, so it was shit

vienna: not much there, saw a orchestra show

munich: cool, went to a beer hall last night

anyway out of time. also i haVE got a job in central london. it is exactly what i wanted. full of young people so im looking forward to that but have to start 2 days after contiki

bye

im alive

2006-04-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

hi have to be really quick. i am alive and having a blast. in rome atm. really hard to find time to use net. lots of couples on tour. have shakes from alcohol already. spending lots of money

bye for now

All ready for Contiki

2006-03-25T06:56:00.000-08:00

hi all,

finally got those pics up of bridge and UN. so im starting to get a bearing on things over here, have used the tube a lot and discovered that it is slow and unreliable but covers a lot of london. have walked around Richmond and central London a bit. I've been shopping, bought some work shoes (ankle high boots actually to keep my ankles warm), a new down feather waterproof jacket (that fits unlike the jacket i was using) and the essential beanie, gloves and scarf.

i met up with a guy who is a comon friend of Renee's last night. nice to meet some new faces, got home at 5 though (as it took a while to catch 2 buses home). so got to see a bit of the nightlife of Londan (Fulham actually). Also had lunch with my other cousin Charmaine. She has completely lost her auzzie accent in 2 years, very amusing.

during the week, I signed up with 2 recruitment agencies online. within 10mins i got a call from one! have had meetings with both of them and have 3 job interview lined up on Monday. i heard it was easy getting a job but geez! lucky i brought my suit with me

anyway that will do for the moment, no pics to post as i haven't taken any. i'm starting to look forward to Contiki now, only 3 days!

see ya

I'm in London!

2006-03-21T06:22:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

sorry its been a while. but have enjoyed lazing around for a few days. i'm at my cousin's now, though he doesn't have internet so i have to use the library (but its free).

so anyway, the last time i sent a post was actually my last day. didn't realise until i couldn't get into my room. lucky i had a late flight!

that day i walked across brooklyn bridge and had lunch at a small park on the brooklyn side that i heard has the best views of the bridge.

guess they were right

then i did a tour of the UN building. it was pretty good. got to go inside the general assembly but not the security coucil (as they were holding a meeting about haiti)

and thats about it for NY. had a great time in USA, highly recommend it, even travelling alone was fine. best to stay in smaller hostels though - easier to meet people.

so now i am in London, Richmond is a very lovely place, plenty of parks. pretty cold though. am about to do some shopping for clothes at Oxford St (the green one in monopoly!)

see ya

p.s. am having problems uploading pics. will try again later

Middle days of NY

2006-03-16T07:09:00.000-08:00

hi all,

it was really cold yesterday, like just above freezing and really windy. i love thermal layers

this is the toy store from the movie BIG. remember chopsticks...

2 days ago...
so, i have seen quite a lot of NY by bus now, definateley worth it.

we walked through central park in the afternoon, quite spectacular

and then up the empire state building, it was a really clear day (and was pretty warm compared to yesterday). the view was spectacular!

then yesterday...
went to go to 'late show' but got there too late, bummer. caught staten island ferry and saw statue of liberty - statue is smaller than in thought.

had a mexican lunch in lower east side. walked to the aircraft carrier museum' but they would let you go on deck as it was too windy, so we didn't bother. then walked to time square and bought tickets to the broardway show, 'dirty rotten scoundrels' for 50% off (still 60 though). that was amazing! had a blast

so thats it so far. btw, i missed gospel tour as my watch was out by an hour. NY york has been pretty much like i thought it would be (i had high expectations). what has impressed me is that i have not yet met one local who hasn't been very friendly and helpful, not one. i have felt very safe the whole time unlike LA. in fact i'm actually staying in Harlem which i have been told is one of the safest places in NY (dont believe the movies). today i am going to brooklyn bridge and maybe a museum. we'll see

bye for now.

Firts days of NY

2006-03-14T06:09:00.000-08:00

hi all,

so after i wrote my last blog, i met this english girl at the lobby. she was travelling alone as well so we began site seeing together.

At night the rain had cleared and we headed to time square for a beer but decided instead to do a tour. the tour (unlimited use of the bus for 48 hrs + that night) is on a red double decker bus with no top roof, perfect for seeing the city. it was fantastic! the lights of time square are amazing! dont have thos pics handy yet but will post some soon. this night tour tokk us through midtown and brooklyn via the manhatten bridge. it was bloody cold across that bridge.

next day we did a tour of midtown. we got off at soho for lunch and had soup for lunch in this cool cafe (but the coffee was crap as usual). then saw battery park, walked through canal st where i could have bought a rolex knock-off for $25 and then wall st. we split up when i had to go to the knicks game. the game was pretty cool (though i was tired), the knicks got thrashed.
anyway this will do for now. it is raining today!

lunch at soho, had a great atmosphere

Rebecca and I on the tour bus

in wall st, some of the bldgs are so tall and so close, it looks like they almost touch!

at the knick game. i was closer than expected, pity the shot is out of focus

last days in DC

2006-03-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

so i'm in NY atm. has been raining all day which kinda screwed up my plans. i went to WTC site (not much) and time square. didn't take any pics as it was raining. then i missed a tour of the bronx... argh!!

anyway, last few days in DC

saw most of the monuments. it was about 24 degrees and perfect. this obviously is the washington monument.

this i from the steps of the lincoln memorial (at the end of the mall/park)

so i met up with some new friends for dinner (10 of us) and went out again starting at a irish pub and finished at a niteclub. i bought some drinks at the niteclub and then went for more but the bar chick wouldn't serve me as i didn't tip her. this was not table service. f#cking stupid tipping sh#t). but the worse part of the night was i had my camera in my pocket and was knocked into a handrail (not that hard) and smashed the screen! i was not happy. still works though just can't see anything. anyway walked home at 5 for a 20min stroll that took over an hour due to bad directions (say aust embassy though).

the next day i was pretty tired and spent an hour mustering the will to see the whitehouse (30min walk) before heading to NY. evntually i did and everyone else came too even though they had already seen it. here is the pic...

so the caught the bus to NY. it was $40 cheaper and i have been spending more money than expected (and no it wasn't all on drinks!). bus was fine, watched movies and slept anyway.

so that's it for now

DC

2006-03-10T10:59:00.000-08:00

hi there,

almost sorted out a way to post pics but i'm in too much of a rush atm.
so i'm in the middle of my second day in DC. yesterday i did the tour of Capitol Hill and checked out the spece museum. capitol hill was really cool but space museum was OK. a lot of the city is undergoing renovations for some reason. after that i was so buggered, i went back to the hostel for a nap. then the hostel organized a tour of georgetown at night which eventually turned into a pubcrawl. that was good fun (got home at 3am). met heaps of people there. georgetown is the poshest suburb in DC, full of politicians, millionaires and lots of pubs/clubs. went inside georgetown uni, saw JFK's house, the poshest restaurant in DC, then began the pubcrawl...

so today i walked through the monuments (the tall tower, reflecting pool, war memorials, and lincoln memorial). it has been unusually warm here, atm it is about 23 degrees. anyway got to go, seeing whitehouse now.

see ya

here are some pics finally!

capitol hill, the tour was pretty good

after the georgetown tour we headed to a bar. pubcrawl's are an easy way to meet new friends!

LA visit

2006-03-08T21:59:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!!

well i made it! i'm in washington atm in the hostel. the internet is cheap but there doesn't appear to be a place to plug in my camera - so no pics atm.

well i arrived in LA after about 18hrs of travelling of which i got no sleep. checked into the hotel straight away, the room was better than expected (i had my own double bed and bathroom). i was feeling pretty good, so i had a shower and headed for Venice beach. after 3 buses and 1.5 hours i made it. LA looks just like the movies, big cars, big roads, a thousand take-away stores and everyone dresses like a punk (but that is how everyone dresess). It was about 18 degress and windy but i wasn't cold in my jumper. i walked along venice beach for about an hour. not many people there (cos it was windy) so it wasn't that great. however, while walking i saw a crowd of people so i went to have a look and turns out they were filming a movie there. there was 2 actors sitting on a bench, one was jeff goldblum! (from jurrasic park, the fly, independance day). i took a few pics which i will post when i get a chance to. anyway started to feel tired so i went home, i managed to stay up till 5 pm, then crashed (was up for about 29 hours). i slept for 14 hours.

so today, i got up, had breakfast in a diner (had 3 cups of their endless coffee) and headed to the airport. i arrived in DC at bout 830pm and headed for the hostel. on the way i met 3 travellers from denmark who were also staying at the hostel (but are leaving tom) so we all checked in to the hostel and headed out for dinner (at 11pm). we were pretty hungary so were wandewring around for any place that served food. the only place open that we found... was hooters! food was crap, had a few beers and am back at the hostel.

so thats it! tom i'll see all the monuments. until then...

1st Blog

2006-03-02T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

This is my first test blog which i'm posting in order to learn how all this stuff works. Have spent a lot of time getting the car prepped for sale and it is now in the trading post and carsguide. Here are some of the pics i posted.

This is the front

This is the back

This is inside, can you see Dave's MP3 player?

This is a pic of City Hall that i took this week. Stupid image rotation...

OK this will do for now

Chau